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In case you missed them, here are some of the top stories of the weekend:
First-time homeowners Nick and Nichole Ault live on a tree-lined street in Longview that’s a five-minute walk away from lovely Lake Sacajawea and about 1½ miles from Lower Columbia College, where Nichole plans to study engineering. Before this, the Aults, both 23, rented a two-bedroom townhouse in Vancouver’s Cascade Park neighborhood.
The Aults, who met at Evergreen High School, were longtime Vancouver residents until recently. Their fruitless search for a home to buy in Vancouver led them to look outside the city and eventually outside the county. They found nothing suitable in Clark County in their desired price range of less than $180,000, or $200,000 at the very maximum.
Their two-bedroom, one-bathroom bungalow in Longview cost $151,000. It has new carpet, new paint, refinished wood floors, a den that could be converted into a third bedroom and space both indoors and outdoors for their three pets.
Read more about the Aults and the difference in housing affordability between Clark, Cowlitz counties.
The Cowlitz Indian Tribe has agreed to pay for a sewer line extending from the city of La Center to the east side of Interstate 5’s Exit 16 interchange to serve commercial development expected to arise near the tribe’s future casino-resort.
Estimated at $3 million, the sewer line will stop at city limits. It will serve properties between the city’s wastewater plant and the I-5 junction.
But the city sewer line will not connect to the $510 million casino, which is under construction just west of Interstate 5, because the 152-acre Cowlitz Reservation is outside the city’s urban growth boundary. The city built its wastewater treatment system at a higher capacity in 2009 in anticipation of handling the casino’s sewage, but the courts ruled last year that extending the sewer line beyond the urban growth boundary would violate Clark County’s planning policies.
Therefore, the tribe is moving ahead with plans to build a $13.4 million sewage treatment system that would inject wastewater treated to drinking water standards deep underground, Cowlitz Tribe Chairman Bill Iyall said Wednesday.
Learn more about the La Center sewer line project.
The next time you pick up a bottle of whiskey from the grocery store, thank the voice on the TV for making such a convincing case for your convenience.
“It gets our state out of the liquor business, strengthens enforcement and provides more funds for vital public services,” the anonymous voice intoned in a costly campaign, heavily financed by Costco, in support of privatized liquor sales.
Though the boozy brawl over the state’s liquor market is more than four years past, a sober analysis shows there are clear winners and losers.
Read more about the effects of liquor privatization.
“When Mr. Trump becomes president and kicks us out of the country, where will we go?”
That was the conversation-stopper when Khalid Khan was visiting his children and grandchildren in Chicago recently. Asking the question was a 7-year-old child — an American citizen who was born here and has never known any other home.
The child is Muslim. The family is Muslim. Trump, the front-runner in the Republican presidential race has swept to popularity partially by promoting distrust and fear of Muslims.
The Islamic Society of Southwest Washington will host “A Conversation with Your Muslim Neighbors” from 2 to 4 p.m. March 6 at Washington State University Vancouver. The event is free and open to all.
Learn more about the Muslim community chat.
The state’s Public Disclosure Commission is considering a complaint from a conservative Clark County blogger asking questions about Sen. Ann Rivers’ campaign contributions.
Rivers’ campaign contribution account recently went from listing more than $255,000 to $80,000.
Rivers filed a handful of amended reports last week that ratcheted back the campaign contribution amount after Kelly Hinton, the blogger, filed a complaint.
The La Center Republican senator said there was a simple explanation: “For three years, my PDC (public disclosure commission) reports have been perfect, and then my preparer retired and gave her clients to another preparer who didn’t adequately do the job. I’ve retained a new preparer who has been working closely with the PDC for nearly six months to get everything squared away.”
Read more about the complaint.
